Back in 2010, Scott Pilgrim was hitting the big-time. The Canadian indie comic series had been gaining more and more popularity since its debut in 2004, and that was coming to a head of sorts as the decade came to a close. A major Hollywood movie directed by Edgar Wright starring then red-hot Michael Cera and at least two superheroes was heading to theaters with a wave of hype behind it, and Ubisoft was preparing just about the most thematically-perfect video game to go with it. At least one of those stories has a happy ending.
Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, the movie, was a pretty good time. Unfortunately, it failed to connect with a wider audience and underperformed expectations in its theatrical run. Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World: The Game, on the other hand, seemed to be in the exact right place at the right time. The competition for beat ’em ups was thin at the time, and Scott Pilgrim’s cool comic book stylings, outstanding chiptune soundtrack, and River City Ransom-inspired gameplay helped the game make its mark in the genre. Sadly, like most licensed games, Scott Pilgrim’s time on the market was limited. Four years later, licenses expired and the game was pulled from online marketplaces. Since it was digital only, that meant the game was gone unless you already bought it. A legend began to build almost immediately and only grew over time.
Meanwhile, some of the key people behind that game had already parted ways with Ubisoft to start their own studio. Not even a year after Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World: The Game hit the market, Jonathan Lavigne, Jean-Francois Major, and Justin Cyr founded Tribute Games. As the years went by, the independent developer gained fame bit by bit with fun games like Wizorb, Mercenary Kings, Flinthook, and Panzer Paladin. But it was the beat ’em up genre that really kicked Tribute Games’ reputation into overdrive.
Back at Ubisoft, some members of Tribute Games had worked on the Game Boy Advance brawler based on the CG TMNT movie from 2007. It was a fairly competent game that paid homage to Konami’s classic games in the franchise, and is well-worth tracking down if you haven’t played it before. In cooperation with French publisher Dotemu, Tribute got a chance to take another swing at the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IP via Shredder’s Revenge, and they hit the ball so far out of the park that we’re still trying to find it. The beat ’em up genre was enjoying a renaissance, and Tribute was one of the stars of the movement.
Just the year before, all of the complicated knots involved in reissuing Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World: The Game were finally untied. A whole new generation of players got a chance to revisit the game in Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World: The Game – Complete Edition, and this time there was even a physical release. It was great to see the game reissued of course, but at least for this reviewer the game didn’t quite hold up to his memories. Still a fairly fun game, and proper mayhem with friends, but sandwiched between Streets of Rage 4 and Shredder’s Revenge, Scott Pilgrim felt decidedly old.
The last piece of this puzzle comes from the main Scott Pilgrim IP itselff, which has seen a little revival in recent years. Notably, in 2023 Netflix played host to a Scott Pilgrim anime called Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, which reunited the movie cast to retell Scott’s story in a whole new form. It even featured music by Anamanaguchi, who had done the soundtrack for the video game. All the threads come together when the creator is in control, my friends. This brings us to Scott Pilgrim EX, a brand-new game from Tribute Games with a completely original story written by series creator Bryan Lee O’Malley. It’s based on Scott Pilgrim Takes Off and addresses the mid-credits cliffhanger that the single-season show ended off on.
That’s a lot of set-up, sorry. I do this a lot. Anyway, all of that is to say that a lot of of the creative forces behind Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World: The Game have come back together, with even more experience under their collective belts, to make a follow-up. Ubisoft has nothing to do with this one, but there’s no question it’s the sequel many wanted and never thought they would get. And hey, that goes for those who enjoyed Scott Pilgrim Takes Off too, come to think of it.
Scott’s band is gathered when suddenly Metal Scott barges in, knocks everyone out, and kidnaps Scott’s bandmates. It’s up to Scott, Ramona, and a few EXes to rescue Scott’s friends, stop Metal Scott, and save Toronto. Maybe the world, too. If things weren’t complicated enough, the city has been taken over by three rival gangs, and time and space itself seem to be distorting. Who is really behind all of this? Only one way to find out: punch. Maybe kick. Throw some objects. You know how all of this goes.
Scott Pilgrim EX goes all the way with the River City Ransom inspiration this time, presenting its world as one connected space instead of breaking things up into stages. You can wander the map as you like, completing objectives, buying upgrades, finishing side missions, and beating the heck out of everyone. Up to four players can join in either via single system local play or online, and there are seven different characters to choose from. All up, the game isn’t much more than four to five hours long from end to end, which is about as long as you’d probably want something like this to be. In true Scott Pilgrim fashion, it is full of pop culture references that I’d imagine most people reading a video game review would get.
It’s kind of a fascinating exercise, because this game clearly wants to link itself to the original one in a lot of ways. At the same time, it’s not going to let itself be confined by that fealty. That’s expressed in the now fully open world, but it also extends to the combat. Yes, there is an air of the original game’s mechanics to it. There’s a weight and deliberateness to it that Tribute’s last couple of brawlers, Shredder’s Revenge and Marvel Cosmic Invasion, eschewed in favor of letting the players easily dance around the screen. But Scott Pilgrim EX is a lot more than that, too. Each character has an array of moves that puts the previous Scott game to shame, and the potential here for those who really dig into the mechanics is off the charts.
Indeed, it almost feels like it’s being a lot more than it has to be. You’ll find that you’ll be just fine even if you don’t touch even a quarter of what the game allows you to do, and the RPG mechanics can go a long way towards wallpapering over any lack of mastery a player might have. You can do so much in this game, but it demands little of it. So really, it’s up to you to push yourself to fully explore those mechanics for the most part. I think whether or not you do that is going to have a big effect on how much fun you have with Scott Pilgrim EX, though. You’re given most of your combat tools right from the get-go, and if you don’t push yourself to explore the roster and how best to make use of those tools, you might find yourself getting a little tired of things before you reach the end.
Fortunately, just like with the previous game, the presentation in Scott Pilgrim EX pushes the experience forward a few notches. The game looks great, with lots of fun details and animations to scope out in every scene. The soundtrack, once again provided by Anamanaguchi, is incredible. And the sheer chaos that unfolds if you pull in a few friends to mix it up is a special sort of visual and audio cacophony that is like candy for the video game soul. It’s not a style over substance thing, which I think the first game suffered somewhat from to an extent. Rather it’s style backing the substance, something that Tribute Games has become very good at indeed.
With all that said, there’s something intangible missing in Scott Pilgrim EX. I’ve chewed my lip trying to figure out exactly what it is, and I think all I can really boil it down to is that to some extent we have seen a lot of this before. There was a certainly distinct, novel energy to that first game that naturally can’t be replicated here. We’ve played a game like this before, one that kind of had a similar look and certainly had a similar sound. It’s those old sequel woes, I suppose. For as much as I love the substantial combat overhaul here, Scott Pilgrim EX sometimes feels a little too safe. It’s not a huge problem, and if I’m being frank it’s something this genre often grapples with when it’s time to do a sequel. But if Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World was punk rock, Scott Pilgrim EX is that same punk rock band in its forties. It still rocks, but it doesn’t feel subversive the way it once did.
Scott Pilgrim EX is another strong beat ’em up from Tribute Games, but like Marvel Cosmic Invasion it feels like it doesn’t quite get all of the pieces together to excel. Fans of Scott Pilgrim in any form will almost certainly have a great time with it, and I think it’s sound enough mechanically that those who love the genre will get their fair share of enjoyment as well. Is it essential? No, but it doesn’t really have to be. I don’t think it’s as big a firecracker within the current form of the genre as its predecessor was in its era, but it’s certainly a better game.
Version Tested: Nintendo Switch 2
Review Copy Provided by Tribute Games
You can read our full Review Policy and Ethics Statement here.
